When I bake with my kids, I usually share a picture of the finished product. Often color corrected and cropped to hide the mess that we made. Let's just take a minute to admire these adorable Pinterest perfect pictures of little ones in the kitchen.
Aww, how sweet.
Last week I wanted to include my children in my baking surprise for my husband. The boys were so excited to help me bake some of Papa's favorite Christmas cookies. I was full of energy and optimism! If I could of fast forwarded 6 minutes into the future moments on that day and see what it would actually entail - I would of told my poor little naive self to just do it alone during nap time.
The Christmas cookie adventure started out fun enough. Cheery Christmas tunes in the background, both boys each with a spatula in hand, smiles on their faces.
However within minutes :
The flour and vanilla sugar were everywhere. Every single surface was sticky with eggs and raspberry jam. It was then that I realized that THIS is the reality of baking with toddlers. Little fingers eating chunks of raw cookie dough, splattered jeans, and a batch of burnt cookies since Mama was too distracted breaking up a fighting match to remember to set the timer.
While I'm a little jealous of the pinterest perfect pictures of pudgy toddler fingers decorating sugar cookies and siblings enjoying each other's company (and I'm guilty of sometimes only sharing those pictures too) that just wasn't reality for us that day. These are how my pictures turned out. And since this day has past us - I can actually laugh about it now. It was crazy.
What are some of the struggles you face when you're baking with your kids? Please share! I'd love to know that I'm not alone.
In the end it was all good. We toughed it out and finished our cookies with pride. Hugs, kisses, and I'm sorry's were exchanged. Papa LOVED his cookies, and we moved onto a snack and some playdoh. Separately this time I might add. That's a whole other story.
Last week I wanted to include my children in my baking surprise for my husband. The boys were so excited to help me bake some of Papa's favorite Christmas cookies. I was full of energy and optimism! If I could of fast forwarded 6 minutes into the future moments on that day and see what it would actually entail - I would of told my poor little naive self to just do it alone during nap time.
The Christmas cookie adventure started out fun enough. Cheery Christmas tunes in the background, both boys each with a spatula in hand, smiles on their faces.
However within minutes :
- They were having meltdowns over who had the bigger spatula
- 2 eggs were broken on the floor
- My recipe card got ripped in half
- My youngest was eating the lemon zest
- My oldest had fallen off of his stool.
- The oven was smoking because it hasn't been cleaned in..well..let's not go there.
The flour and vanilla sugar were everywhere. Every single surface was sticky with eggs and raspberry jam. It was then that I realized that THIS is the reality of baking with toddlers. Little fingers eating chunks of raw cookie dough, splattered jeans, and a batch of burnt cookies since Mama was too distracted breaking up a fighting match to remember to set the timer.
While I'm a little jealous of the pinterest perfect pictures of pudgy toddler fingers decorating sugar cookies and siblings enjoying each other's company (and I'm guilty of sometimes only sharing those pictures too) that just wasn't reality for us that day. These are how my pictures turned out. And since this day has past us - I can actually laugh about it now. It was crazy.
What are some of the struggles you face when you're baking with your kids? Please share! I'd love to know that I'm not alone.
In the end it was all good. We toughed it out and finished our cookies with pride. Hugs, kisses, and I'm sorry's were exchanged. Papa LOVED his cookies, and we moved onto a snack and some playdoh. Separately this time I might add. That's a whole other story.
German Christmas Cookie Recipe
400g flour
200g butter cubed
3 egg yolks
100g sugar
1pkg. Vanilla sugar
juice and rind from a lemon
50g ground hazelnuts
Raspberry jam
icing sugar
Mix all ingredients together and chill dough for two hours. Roll out dough and use cookie cutters of your choice. Bake about 8-10 minutes, cool on racks, and then spread jam on one side, cover with another and dust with icing sugar!
